Securityman on guard at
Pahalgam as thousands of tourists pour in.
Pahalgam is also the base camp for the Amarnath
Yatra which begins on Thursday.  Photo by
Amin War

All
set for Amarnath YatraNEW DELHI,
July 10  With the Amarnath Yatra scheduled to start
on Friday, a senior official of the Union Home Ministry
has reviewed the security arrangements for it.

Landless urged to defy
feudal lawsBHOPAL,
July 10  The Ekata Parishad is organising the
landless people of Madhya Pradesh and exhorting them to
rise against the existing "feudal" system in
the state. As a first step, they have been asked to
gherao the MLAs and MPs of their areas on August 15
because "these are the people who are responsible
for the enactment of the laws favouring the vested
interests".

Vital clues to church blasts
BANGALORE, July 10  The police has obtained vital
clues in the explosions that took place in some churches
in Karnataka, including last nights blast in the
city, Chief Minister S.M. Krishna said today.

Khushwant Singh icon of our age
NEW DELHI, July 10  Differences between two
founding fathers of the country, Jawaharlal Nehru and
Sardar Patel, had come to "such a pass" that
even terminologies like "Patelite" surfaced in
government circles and Nehru took to task those
considered close to Patel, says noted writer and
journalist Khushwant Singh.

Attacks stifling
womens rights
NEW DELHI, July 10  Apart from being a violation of
human rights, the recent fundamentalist attacks have set
the clock back on womens empowerment, the Young
Womens Christian Association of India today said.

No hope of
third Press Commission
HYDERABAD, July 10  The Chairman of the Press
Council of India Justice P.B. Sawant, said today there
was "no hope that the Centre will constitute the
third Press Commission", though there was a need for
it.

Bharti group to open school in HPNEW
DELHI, July 10  The Bharti Foundation would soon
open a primary school in Himachal Pradesh, the Chairman
and group managing director of Bharti Enterprises, Mr
Sunil Bharti Mittal, told The Tribune, here today.

MLA brings rape victim to House
AGARTALA, July 10  In an unprecedented act, a
Congress legislator in the Tripura Assembly brought an
alleged rape victim to the House, demanding justice.

NEW DELHI, July 10
 With the Amarnath Yatra scheduled to start on
Friday, a senior official of the Union Home Ministry has
reviewed the security arrangements for it.

The Special Secretary
(Home), Mr Tilak Raj Kakkar, who returned here after a
visit to the holy cave, said today central paramilitary
forces, the Army and the local police will provide
round-the-clock security cover to the estimated two lakh pilgrims this year.

He said like last year,
two routes would be opened for pilgrims, including the
traditional 34-km route of Pahalgam-Chandanwari and
another shorter but steeper 16-km route from Baltal.

Although there have been
no specific threats by any militant group to disrupt the
yatra, the authorities are not taking any chance. Eight
bomb disposal squads have been pressed into service which
will survey the routes before permitting the pilgrims.
However, the threat of attacks on the security forces
through IEDs was one area of concern.

The administration has
planned some 35 camps en route which will offer
facilities for the yatris and also have medical
facilities which will be provided by the Army and
paramilitary forces.

He said while the Army
and the BSF would patrol the higher reaches, the CRPF and
the local police would provide security primarily at
camps.

The pilgrims would be
allowed in batches of 2,000 on the Baltal-Sonamarg route
while batches of 5,000 would be allowed to proceed on the
traditional route, he said adding that permission was
granted on the basis of the conditions of the route.

The Amarnath yatra will
start on July 13 and culminate on August 15, on the day
of full moon of the month.

BHOPAL, July 10 
The Ekata Parishad is organising the landless people of
Madhya Pradesh and exhorting them to rise against the
existing "feudal" system in the state. As a
first step, they have been asked to gherao the MLAs and
MPs of their areas on August 15 because "these are
the people who are responsible for the enactment of the
laws favouring the vested interests".

According the
national convener of Ekata Parishad, Mr P.V. Rajgopal,
September 11 will be observed as the "ghar vapasi" day when the tribal families will march to
their original villages in the states 32 wildlife
sanctuaries and 11 national parks. He said 4.5 lakh
tribals were displaced over 10 years ago for setting up
these sanctuaries and parks but these poor people were
yet to be rehabilitated properly.

On October 2, he said,
"a chakka jam" would be organised at 50 places
in the state to highlight the faulty land policy and its
"dishonest" implementation in the state. The
central point of "chakka Jam" would be Gwalior
as the roads to Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan also lead
from there.

Following his call, the
landless people at several places were ploughing whatever
land was available or was allotted to them by the
government but was being forcibly occupied by the
landlords.

Mr P.V. Rajgopal led a
190-day, Sheopur to Raigarh "bhoo-adhikar satyagraha
yatra" (march to focus attention on the landless)
which covered five comparatively more backward regions of
the state  Chambal, Bundelkhand, Baghelkhand,
Mahakoshal and Chhattisgarh. During the march, the Ekata
Parishad convener crossed through 1500 villages and had
interaction with an estimated 5000 persons. Everywhere,
he said, the people talked of hunger and lack of
employment.

Mr Rajgopal said the
state had 15 per cent of the total land as surplus in the
fifties for distribution among the landless, the
Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes. Today only 2
per cent of the land remained surplus. The 13 per cent,
he claimed, did not go to the people for whom it was
meant. Even where the government gave the pattas
(ownership rights) to the landless people, they were
denied possession by the musclemen of the landlords.

Even in the official
records, he told mediapersons, the number of the landless
in the state was 9.6 per cent of the states total
population in 1971-72 and it had gone up to 15.2 per cent
in 1991-92. The situation was continuously deteriorating.

Mr Rajgopal said he knew
that the state apparatus would try to ruthlessly suppress
the peaceful agitation but he and his people were
prepared for the consequences. Wouldnt it lead to
anarchy in the state? Yes, that was what was needed, he
said.

BANGALORE, July 10 (PTI)
 The police has obtained vital clues in the
explosions that took place in some churches in Karnataka,
including last nights blast in the city, Chief
Minister S.M. Krishna said today.

"The police is
inching towards nabbing culprits behind the explosions as
they have stumbled upon vital clues," he told
reporters here, assuring the minorities that his
government would initiate all possible measures to
protect their interests.

Surveillance and
patrolling at all places of worship had been stepped up,
he said.

The corps of detectives
probe announced yesterday into the blast at St Lutheran
church at Hubli, and twin explosions in Wadi last month,
would also cover last nights blast at the St Peter
and Paul Church, he said.

The Chief Minister ruled
out entrusting the probe to the CBI, but added that the
COD would work in close association with CBI exchanging
information.

Mr Krishna said at
attempts to create a fear psychosis in the minorities
would be dealt with iron hand.

The Chief Minister, who
had alleged a conspiracy to destabilise his government
yesterday, said none could succeed in this direction (to
destabilise his government) as his government enjoyed
popular mandate of people.

After visiting the St
Peter and Paul Church in the city where an explosion took
place yesterday, he told reporters that orders had been
issued for setting up a special police team to probe the
blast.

Preliminary
investigations revealed that the samples, collected at
the site (St Peter and Paul Church) by ballistic experts
today, bore "resemblance" to the explosive
materials used to trigger the blasts in Wadi last month
and in the St Lutheran Church in Hubli on June 8. The
police suspected the role of locals in the blast in the
church here, he said.

NEW DELHI: The National
Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Monday set a deadline
of two weeks for the Centre and state government to give
a report on the recent attacks on Christians and their
institutions.

The order, which came
after two incidents of bomb blast in churches in
Karnataka was issued in view of "non-receipt of
report, asked by the commission last month, from the
centre, state government and union territories regarding
attacks and atrocities on the Christian community."

The NHRC has also issued
a show cause notice to the Uttar Pradesh Government
asking why monetary compensation should not be paid to
the next of kin of custodial death victim Vijay Kumar
Ekka, a key witness in the murder case of a Christian
priest in Mathura.

ALLAHABAD: The Samata
Party, a constitutent of the NDA government at the
Centre, has demanded that state governments should take
strong action against those attacking Christians and
their religious institutions.

The party, in its July
edition of newsletter, circulated at the conclusion of
the two-day national council meeting at Varanasi on
Sunday, also demanded the state governments should
conduct proper investigations to expose the elements
responsible for the attacks.

NEW DELHI, July 10 (UNI)
 Apart from being a violation of human rights, the
recent fundamentalist attacks have set the clock back on
womens empowerment, the Young Womens
Christian Association of India (YWCA) today said.

Addressing newspersons
here today, YWCA National President Susan Mathai said the
organisation wanted to "bring together secular
forces and condemn such acts, not as Christians but as
Indians."

Talking about the
increasing attacks on minorities in the country, Ms
Mathai said such attacks had set back womens
empowerment. "we have to hold on to the freedom we
have won," she said adding that such activities
would tear apart the secular fabric of the country.

Fundamentalism exists in
every religion, Mary Khemchand, former YWCA President
admitted, adding that these forces had to be reined in as
they stifled womens rights.

Asked if they had
initiated dialogue with certain Hindu groups, YWCA
National General Secretary Sadhona Ganguli said, "We
will not blame Hindus as a community, as we have lived
harmoniously for centuries now. It is only certain
communal elements in the sangh parivar that need to be
addressed."

Referring to the
consultation on the draft legislation on domestic
violence, Ms Khemchand said a framework put together by
the Lawyers Collective, a Delhi-based NGO had
been circulated to all local groups, and a final version
would be drafted within six months.

A campaign committee
would then be formed to lobby with the ministry
concerned. "We hope to see it through in the winter
session of Parliament," she added.

HYDERABAD, July 10 (PTI)
 The Chairman of the Press Council of India (PCI),
Justice P.B. Sawant, said today there was "no hope
that the Centre will constitute the third Press
Commission", though there was a need for it.

"In the present
scenario, they (NDA government) have their own agenda and
this matter (setting up of the Press Commission) appears
to be last on the agenda", Justice Sawant said while
inaugurating a seminar on  Future of Print Media
 here.

However, the PCI could
not continue waiting for the government to constitute the
Press Commission but had decided to take the
"initiative" to examine problems of the print
media in the country and come out with measures to
strengthen it in the context of the rapidly changing
socio-political environment, he said.

Several changes had
swept the country in the past two decades since the
submission of second Press Commissions report in
1980, he pointed out.

"Our exercise is
not borne out of fear of extinction of print media but
out of a desire to strengthen it on healthy lines,"
the PCI Chairman said.

The measures to raise
the standards of media, promote freedom of the Press and
monitor development of monopolistic tendencies that might
obstruct free flow of information were among the areas
being focused by the PCI, Justice Sawant said.

NEW DELHI, July 10
 The Bharti Foundation would soon open a primary
school in Himachal Pradesh, the Chairman and group
managing director of Bharti Enterprises, Mr Sunil Bharti
Mittal, told The Tribune, here today.

"The Bharti
Foundation would open a primary school in Himachal within
the next two months. This would be our first initiative
in the state," he said.

Earlier, Bharti
Enterprises entered into a tie up with IIT, Delhi, for
setting up Bharti School of Telecommunication Technology
and Management in the Capital.

For this venture, he
said the company has committed Rs 20 crore. Of this, Rs
10 crore would be spent on creating a new building
complex for the school within the IIT, Delhi, premises.

The two programmes that
would be offered under this projects were M.Tech in
Telecommunication Technology and Management and
Masters Programme in Telecommunicaiton
Infrastructure Management.

AGARTALA, July 10 (UNI)
 In an unprecedented act, a Congress legislator in
the Tripura Assembly brought an alleged rape victim to
the House, demanding justice.

The victim, a minor
girl, was allegedly raped by a youth recently at Mohanpur
in west district.

MLA Ratan Lal Nath
brought the victim to the House and the entire opposition
demanded suspension of the officer-in-charge of the
Sidhai police immediately, alleging the officer did not
register the FIR.

NEW DELHI, July 10 (PTI)
 Differences between two founding fathers of the
country, Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel, had come to
"such a pass" that even terminologies like
"Patelite" surfaced in government circles and
Nehru took to task those considered close to Patel, says
noted writer and journalist Khushwant Singh.

"I never realised
that differences between Sardar Patel and Panditji had
come to such a pass that you either belonged to one
person or the other," says Khushwant Singh in a
free-wheeling interview to diplomat-author Pavan K. Varma
for a new compendium "Khushwant Singh  An Icon
of Our Age".

Squarely blaming Krishna
Menon for such an impasse, Khushwant Singh recalls
"a man senior to me, Sudhir Ghosh, was fired
entirely because Krishna Menon wrote to Panditji that he
is a Patelite".

The volume, edited by
media consultant, Kaamna Prasad, carries articles penned
by a galaxy of popular personalities from a wide spectrum
of life, including business tycoons, senior journalists,
politicians and authors both from India and Pakistan
throwing light on Khushwant Singh as a man, scribe and
writer.

Recalling his short
stint as a Public Relations Officer in the government,
Khushwant Singh tells Varma about the circumstances that
led to his resignation from the "good job".

"I did not know
what a PROs job was. Then I had a very difficult
boss in Krishna Menon who was hard to please .... I got
on very well with him in the beginning but later he
became rude and discourteous."

"I had been a great
favourite and I was replaced by greater favourites 
P.N. Haksar and a few others".

Commenting on what
really inspired him to take to creative writing and
whether he read works of great authors, Khushwant Singh
in his inimitable style says "on the contrary great
authors gave me a feeling of inadequacy. I felt, why
should I write ..... It was second rate writers who gave
me encouragement".

The author of several
celebrated works, including "Train to Pakistan"
also maintains that patrons did not come his way.

Recalling Khushwant
Singhs stint in the Rajya Sabha, Deputy Chairperson
of the Upper House Najma Heptulla lauds his debates on
the freedom of the Press.

In his piece,
industrialist Bharat Ram recalls their younger days
together adding "one can say that we were both fond
of the same girl in school, his future wife".

In his contribution to
the octogenarian writer and columnist, business tycoon
Lord Swraj Paul describes Khushwant Singh as a
"quintessential professional".

Pakistani journalist
Nelofar Farooq in her essay "Delhis most
famous living monument", maintains "getting
away with just about anything has become Khushwant
Singhs hallmark. Despite being a proclaimed
agnostic, in April this year he was awarded the
Nishan-e-Khalsa, the highest honour to be given by the
Sikh community".

The volume, to be
released on July 15 by External Affairs Minister Jaswant
Singh, also has articles on Khushwant Singh written by
eminent personalities, including journalists M.J. Akbar
and H.K. Dua, author Namita Gokhale and filmmaker Pamela
Rooks.

Rain or thundershowers
are likely to occur at most places in the Andaman and
Nicobar islands, Saurashtra, Kutch, Konkan, Goa, coastal
Karnataka and Kerala, at many places in Nagaland,
Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, West Bengal and Sikkim,
Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, coastal Andhra Pradesh and
interior Karnataka and at a few places over the rest of
the country outside west Rajasthan where it will occur at
isolated places.

Southwest monsoon has
been vigorous in west Madhya Pradesh and active in
sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim, Saurashtra, Kutch,
Konkan and Goa. Rain or thundershowers have occurred at
most places in coastal Karnataka, at many places in the
Andaman and Nicobar islands, Orissa and Kerala, at a few
places in Assam, Meghalaya, Bihar, east Uttar Pradesh and
Madhya Maharashtra and at isolated places in Nagaland,
Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Gangetic West Bengal, plains
of west Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, east
Rajasthan, east Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Marathwada,
Vidarbha, coastal Andhra Pradesh, Telengana, Tamil Nadu
and interior Karnataka. Mainly dry weather prevailed over
the rest of the country.

NEW DELHI, July 10 (PTI)
 The Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) employees
unions deferred their indefinite strike from midnight
tonight following an assurance from Communications
Minister Ram Vilas Paswan that outstanding issues would
be resolved by July 21.

"We have deferred
our strike till July 21 as the minister has assured that
all pending issues would be resolved by that date,"
Mr Sarup Singh, Secretary-General, National Telecom Staff
Union, said.

NATIONAL BRIEFS

Harry
Potter coming to IndiaNEW
DELHI: Harry Potter, the teenage wizard, is
coming to town. "Harry Potter and Goblet of
Fire", British author J.K. Rowlings newest
book in the fantasy series, will hit the bookshelves in
Delhi and the rest of the country on Saturday. About
5,000 copies of the fourth book in the widely popular
series, which made a sensational launch in Britain and
the USA on July 8, is awaiting clearance at the airport
here.  UNI

Four bodies
fished outMUMBAI:
Bodies of four of the 14 persons feared drowned
on Sunday during the torrential rains, were fished out
from the choppy sea off Gorai in north Mumbai early on
Monday even as the Navy deployed helicopters to trace the
others, the police said. A search operation was launched
by home guards, fire-brigade personnel, the police and
villagers for the 14 persons, including 12 teenagers, who
were reported missing after they were swept away by the
swirling waters while playing cricket on the beach. 
PTI

MP to implement
nutrition policyBHOPAL:
With a view to preventing malnutrition, the Madhya
Pradesh Government has decided to implement the nutrition
policy and the state action plan chalked out with the
cooperation of UNICEF. District-wise action plans are
being prepared for implementation of the policy, besides
constituting a state-level council for nutrition,
according to an official press note here. It said the
panchayat and urban local bodies had been assigned an
important role to effectively implement the action plan. 
UNI

Padyatras for a
causeDEHRA
DUN: Education for all, preservation of
traditional seeds and making Garhwal a liquor-free zone
are the issues to be highlighted by padyatras undertaken
by villagers of the region. Under the aegis of the
Sanyukt Parvatiya Vikas Samiti with the support of the
Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra of Dehra Dun,
villagers from the remote hill areas of Uttarkashi
district began padyatras from various points last week.
The samiti would coordinate dialogue between the common
man and development agencies.  UNI

Jewellers
observe bandhBARODA:
About 600 jewellers have resorted to an indefinite bandh
at Padara town in the district since Sunday, protesting
the "harassment" by the police. The town has
one of the biggest gold markets in the state, transacting
a business of Rs 5 crore per day during the marriage
season and Rs 2 crore a day during the off season. 
PTI

7 gelatine
sticks seized, 4 heldPERAMBALUR
(TN): The police arrested four persons and
seized seven gelatine sticks, two detonators, 10 metres
of fuse wire and a sickle from them at two separate
places in Perambalur district of Tamil Nadu on Sunday. A
police patrol arrested two youths who were found moving
in a suspicious manner at Keelapazhur and seized five
gelatine sticks concealed in the bag from them. In
another incident, the police arrested two persons and
seized two detonators, two gelatine sticks, fuse wire and
a sickle from them at Kunnam village.  UNI

Bhuria is chief
of Adivasi parishadNEW
DELHI: Mr Dileep Singh Bhuria, Chairman of the
National Commission for S.Cs and S.Ts, New Delhi, has
been elected President of the Adivasi Vikas Parishad. Mr
Bhuria was elected by the working committee comprising Mr
P.A. Sangma, former Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Mr S. B.
Damor, former President of the parishad, Mr Moghe and Mr
Madhukarrao Pichad, ministers, Maharashtra Government,
and Mr Arvind Netam, former Union Minister and General
Secretary of the Vikas parishad.  UNI

Amend
Cooperative Act: NGOJAIPUR:
The Centre for Community Economics and Development
Consultants Society has demanded elections to the
cooperative bodies in the state and urged the state
government to amend the Cooperative Act of 1965. The
societys state coordinator, Mr Prakash Changani,
told a press conference here that about 5,200 cooperative
societies in the state were suffering due to the
negligence of the officials. He alleged
"administrator raj" in the state due to the
misuse of the Act.  PTI